Dr. Fred Lippman
Professor & Health Professions Division Chancellor Emeritus
As the Chancellor of Nova Southeastern University’s Health Professions Division (NSU-HPD), Dr. Fred Lippman is an extraordinary health care CEO who is responsible for six colleges: osteopathic medicine, allied health and nursing, pharmacy, dental medicine, optometry, and medicine sciences. Those colleges enroll thousands of young professional students, and they are staffed by 1,370 faculty and non-faculty employees.
HPD’s mission is to train primary care health practitioners in a multidisciplinary setting, with an emphasis on medically underserved areas. NSU trains students in concert with other health profession students so that the various disciplines will learn to work together as a team for the good of the public's health. During their didactic work, students share campus facilities and, in some cases, have combined classes. In their clinical experiences, they work together in NSU facilities.
Moreover, HPD aims to educate health care practitioners who will eventually increase the availability of health care in areas of Florida that suffer from health care shortages. HPD aims to alleviate some of these shortages by exposing the entire student body to the needs, challenges, and rewards of rural, underserved urban, and geriatric care. Existing curricula require all students to attend ambulatory care clerkships in rural or urban areas, or both, making NSU strongly oriented toward a pattern of training its students in areas geographically removed from the health center itself, and to the care of indigent and multicultural population groups. In doing this, it developed training programs which address the primary care needs of the region's most medically underserved populations.
Under Chancellor Lippman’s leadership, HPD has developed into a multidisciplinary academic health center of international stature. His stewardship helped HPD attract top researchers, faculty, and students from around the world. He has been instrumental in starting a plethora of health care programs both at NSU’s main campus in Ft. Lauderdale and its student educational centers throughout Florida and the Caribbean. The Chancellor helped HPD increase its research budget and facilities, including the 208,000-square-foot Center for Collaborative Research. It is Florida’s largest wet research laboratory.
During Dr. Lippman’s tenure, HPD has redoubled its commitment to academic excellence, innovation, and community service, while expanding its mission in research and scholarship. With his stewardship, the distinguished faculty prepare students for exciting careers in tomorrow's dynamic health care teams. He has prepared them to make a difference in South Florida and throughout the world.
Dr. Lippman helped expand insurance benefits for HPD employees, increased tuition waivers for students, and boost the number of wellness programs. He has expanded campus health care programs, increased library resources, and increased the size of the university’s institutional databases. Under his guidance, NSU-HPD’s first research laboratory was developed, core high-technology multi-user research equipment was acquired, and protocols and guidelines for research activity were drafted. This creation of a research infrastructure resulted in a tremendous increase in basic research funding, research publications, and submitted grants. NSU students now participate in undergraduate research programs and present their findings at regional and national conferences.
He is known as the “Father” of Florida’s Area Health Education Center Program (AHEC), a federally-funded program that works to improve the supply and distribution of primary care health providers in medically underserved rural and urban areas by creating partnerships with academic centers. NSU started the state’s first AHEC program.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chancellor Lippman earned his pharmacy degree from Columbia University’s College of Pharmacy. He and his wife moved to South Florida, where he practiced pharmacy in Broward County. He eventually earned his doctorate in education leadership & administration from Nova Southeastern University.
Chancellor Lippman was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1978 to 1998. As a state lawmaker, Dr. Lippman fought for legislation to protect children, senior citizens, and to improve Florida’s health care systems. His major legislative accomplishments include helping pass one of the nation’s first laws to mandate the use of child safety belts.
He is the recipient of numerous community service and health care awards such as the Youth Law Center Distinguished Achievement Award; Florida Medical Association Appreciation for the new Department of Health; the Public Service Award from the U.S. Department of Transportation; the American Trauma Society Distinguished Service Award; and the Florida Pediatric Society’s Outstanding Legislator and Advocate for Children.
Some of Dr. Lippman’s professional affiliations include the Florida Research Consortium, the Florida Pharmacy Association, the Broward County Pharmaceutical Association, American Pharmaceutical Association, and Florida Tax Watch.